Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Zootopia

In Zootopia (co-dirs. Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, 2016) we
are given a utopia in which animals long ago agreed to put aside their inborn
instincts and live together in peace and harmony.Even so, not everyone in this fantasy world
is treated equally.Foxes are
stereotyped as sly and dishonest.Rabbits are regarded as too small and weak to serve on the police
force.Everyone makes fun of, or is
exasperated by, the slow-moving sloths.The film focuses on a young female rabbit, Judy Hopps, who wants to be a
police officer, and on the fox, Nick Wilde, who eventually becomes her friend and
ally.The lessons here, aside from the
overall lesson of peace and harmony blah blah blah are that in the city of Zootopia
everyone can achieve their dreams and that people (that is, animals) shouldn’t
be stereotyped.Another lesson pertains
to race and racial differences—whatever one’s racial, or spec-ial character, he
or she should be treated like everyone else.These are all lessons our world could profit by.In fact, they are so commonplace that it’s
easy to ignore them and just to be entertained by the colorful, fast-moving,
and witty film.Maybe, however, given
the young audience the film is partially aimed towards, the lessons are worth
repeating.For the adults who watch this
film with the children (or without them) there is much to be entertained by.

The film does invoke its own
stereotypes—a heavy and slow-talking hillbilly fox is an example.

Although the plot is an old one—a
character who wants to prove that, in spite of the expectations of everyone
around her, she can be the person she wants to be, it’s the execution that
makes this film so pleasantly watchable.